the lost always return
by rhead-a-holyc
Summary: "I hate you!" Those were the last words Harry said to him before he disappeared. And Tom intends to find Harry again, if only to explain. Tom/Harry. Slash, I think? Riddle Era.


"I hate you!"

Those were the last words Harry said to him before he disappeared. Tom could still see the hurt and the anger that had clouded Harry's eyes when he thought back to that day. The taunt line of Harry's slouched back was etched into his memory, and when Harry walked away – to cool down – Tom had thought that he would have the time to explain when Harry came back.

Because Harry was Harry, and despite his anger, Tom knew that Harry would listen to him.

But Harry didn't return to the orphanage that day. Nor the day after.

The Matron sighed and eventually wrote him off as another runaway child, sending a photo and short description to the nearby police station.

For months, Tom stayed out until the very end of curfew to look for Harry, wondering if what he had done really was so wrong that Harry would run away over it – he had only messed with Billy's rabbit. It wasn't like anyone had actually gotten hurt. There hadn't been any blood or broken bones or pain whatsoever, only some tears and screaming. Maybe some trauma, but that had been the entire point of teaching Billy a lesson.

Eventually... Eventually even Tom had to give up his search. He'd searched everywhere reachable within the time he had, and asked as many people as he could, but none of them remembered Harry passing through – none of the shopkeepers who were too busy with themselves, or the police, who hadn't been assigned to that area at that time.

Tom forced himself to continue as he always had. As if Harry had never been there, and he forced his bitter feelings of being left behind by yet another person onto the rest of the children in the orphanage. It was their fault too. If it hadn't been for them, and their hatred of his and Harry's abilities, Tom was sure Harry would have still been by his side.

The arrival of the Deputy Headmaster of Hogwarts only confirmed that he and Harry were better than the rest of the children at the orphanage; that they were more than the snivelling weaklings would ever be.

"Can you find someone with magic?" Tom asked, trying to remain polite but unable to hide his hope.

Dumbledore smiled. "Of course. There are many ways to find someone with magic. I understand there was another young boy that disappeared years ago?"

Tom huffed, cursing the blabbing caretaker in his mnd. "He was... _is_ a friend. I always wanted to know what happened to him."

"If he'd anything like you, I dare say you may find him at Hogwarts." Tom felt Dumbledore's eyes on him from beyond the half-moon frames. "If not, I don't think it would be any trouble for me to help you find your friend. Or find out what happened to him at the very least."

Tom's eyes shot up to meet Dumbledore's. While he would like to be able to find Harry on his own, his desire to see Harry again trumped any sort of pride he would have held.

"I would like that. Sir."

"Wonderful! I've noticed that the students who enter Hogwarts with a goal in mind, do tend to do remarkably better than the rest. I look forward to seeing you on September first, Tom."

...oOo...

Meeting his classmates at Hogwarts was the most disappointing experience Tom had ever had the misfortune to encounter. There were three others from the Muggle world like him, and they were sorted into Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, and Ravenclaw respectively. Tom himself was sent to Slytherin, along with a Parkinson, Nott, and blond Bagshot male who piqued Tom's curiosity almost immediately.

It wasn't that Tom recognised the boy: he had a mop black hair and cloudy blue eyes with a cool gaze of disregard. Several Slytherins leaned away from him even as he sat down, and Dumbledore himself had narrows his eyes at his sorting. The way the boy carried himself gave Tom a very strong sense of familiarity.

But Tom wasn't at Hogwarts to make friends or solve the mysteries of his classmates. He was at Hogwarts to find Harry, and then make sure neither of them ever went back to the orphanage. Tom would never step foot in that orphanage again if he was given any other option.

Dumbledore's idea of help, as Tom soon found out, came in the form of weekly meetings with the professor, with Tom doing much of the talking and Dumbledore giving him incredibly vague hints because it would be more _satisfying_ for him to work it out by himself.

Tom very honestly didn't care about how satisfying it would be in the end, but he wasn't going to tell Dumbledore that.

The Bagshot boy, whose name Tom discovered with an uncomfortable jolt was 'Hadrian', kept out of the way of their year mates. Tom had even caught sight of him being openly hostile when any of them overstepped his silent boundary. Yet the Slytherins continued trying, and Tom found himself with Bagshot as a partner for any of the lessons that required it.

Tom took the time to observe the other boy, and figure out exactly why he seemed familiar. He was an oddity, certainly, being the centre of attention and having almost an entire house cater to his whims, yet utterly hate it.

"Riddle, if you continue to stare slack-jaw into space, your potion will not be finished in time to be bottled at the end of the lesson. I suggest you hurry," Bagshot broke Tom out of his musings without casting a glance in his direction.

Bagshot did that alarmingly often, seeming to know Tom\s exact actions without looking – and almost before Tom did them. Tom hadn't seen him do the same with anyone else.

"How do you do that all the time?" Tom hissed to himself, turning back to quickly stir his potion that had already missed the ideal colour.

"You're particularly obvious, Riddle. I have no idea how you intend to survive Slytherin with your behaviour, and especially with your friendliness with Dumbledore." Bagshot sneered as he tapped his vial with his wand to seal it. That was an expression he had worn in the orphanage, and Tom wasn't about to allow another person to use it on him – as if he was below Bagshot just because of their blood status.

That was the day that Tom decided that Slytherin would be his. He'd snatch it from under the nose of the Bagshot boy and rule the house in the very way Bagshot seemed to be reluctant to do. He could find Harry and rule Slytherin at the same time.

Bagshot swept out of the classroom as soon as the lesson ended. His entourage followed after him, despite knowing they would probably get cursed for their efforts.

...oOo...

Nine location attempts and three attempts at taking over Slytherin later, and Tom thought he'd finally found the enchantment that would help him locate Harry. Dumbledore had graciously offered his office as their testing area.

The yellow glow of the quill finally settled to lay on the parchment it had previously been scribbling on. Tom snatched the parchment out of the air, and his eyes flew through the words.

"He's Harry," Tom muttered, sitting down. He leaned back even as his grip on the parchment tightened. "He's _Harry_. I've been looking for him all this time and he'd been _right here_. I saw him every day. I sleep in the same dorm room as him."

"i must say, even I did not see this coming, but that's not to say that I don't enjoy a good surprise every now and again," Dumbledore said, stroking his beard as he peered at the parchment himself. "What do you plan to do now, Tom?"

"Why didn't he tell me when he first saw me? Surely he must have recognised me?"

"Nobody but Harry himself would be able to tell you for certain, but I wouldn't get my hopes up for anything particularly exciting. The simplest reasons are usually the most convincing. I think you've already made up your mind, Tom."

Tom stormed his way into the Slytherin Common Room after managing to pull himself together and formulate some sort of a plan: just do it.

"Harry!"

"I didn't think we were on first name terms, Riddle," Harry drawled lazily. His blue eyes looked as blank as they always did: impenetrable walls of ice that Tom was planning to just smash through.

Tom tossed the parchment over the book Harry was reading. "What exactly is that?"

"A parchment, with a scrying enchantment by the looks of it. I would have expected you to be able to tell that yourself. You are, after all, our resident bookworm."

"Read it," Tom hissed furiously.

"What exactly are you expecting me to do about it? There's nothing on that parchment that I don't already know. The question is, what are _you_ going to do? You're already so riled up over it."

Tom glanced around at the eavesdropping Slytherins before grabbing Harry and forcing him into the dormitories, locking the door behind him.

"It's been _four_ years since we started Hogwarts. Four years, and you didn't say a thing! You've known who I was this entire time. You knew I was looking for you! Why didn't you say _anything_?"

"I've been watching you search, Tom. Sometimes, I got the feeling that you honestly wished the result would be that you'd found out that I'd died that night. It would have been a reason for me to never return. While the actual story isn't that different, the result is that I chose to stay away at the end." Harry smiled bitterly at Tom, "With the hope that you'd eventually move on. That I could watch from afar and not really mess things up for you more than I already had."

"And all this time I waited for the day that you'd be back at my side, not knowing you were there all along!"

"If you can call that 'at your side', you've clearly lost it. I don't think you attempt a house revolution against someone who is 'at your side'," Harry said dryly. "The Slytherins are actually pretty terrified you're planning another one with how quiet you've been lately."

"We can rule together now," Tom said, eyes gleaming.

"Who said I wanted to rule with _you_? Did you not read the part about me essentially being adopted by Gellert? I don't _share!_ "

...oOo...

" _Harry!_ " Tom almost sang as he entered the Hogwarts kitchen, waving away the house elves who rushed towards him.

"Go away, Tom!"

"Shall I go missing on you too, then? Maybe I'll change my name, and have you search across the globe for me," Tom teased.

"I hate you!" Harry muttered darkly.

Tom smirked. " _I love you too, honey!"_

The jinx Tom wasn't able to dodge from the laughter was worth it.

* * *

 **Written for**

 **Hogwarts**

 **World Cupt: Iran - "I hate you"/ "I love you too, honey!"**

 **Eagle Day: Luna Lovegood – (word) oddity, (color) yellow, (action) search**

 **The Golden Snitch [Uagadou, Biloko]**

 **Through the Universe: Supernova Remnant – (word) left behind**


End file.
